Hair clipper attachment



C. A. WILLIAMS HAIR CLIPPER ATTACHMENT Oct. 3, 1967 Filed Aug. l5, 1966 United States Patent tlice asians Patented Oct. 3, 1967 3,344,520 HAIR CLIPPER ATTACHMENT Charles A.. Williams, 201 F. Berger Road, Paducah, Ky. 42001 Filed Aug. 15, 1966, Ser. No. 572,479 10 Claims. (Cl. 30-200) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A comb-like device having a magnet for allowing quick and secure attachment of the same to the cutting head of a hair clippers. Arcuate grooves are formed in the sides of the teeth of the device for cooperation with suction means to further insure attachment Vto the clippers.

` the length of the cut can be gauged have been almost universally positioned in place by various types of .resilient metal clips or hooks` The majority of the prior art resilient clips and hooks are designed to either snap into place al-ong the sides of the cutter head or to hook along the front and back of the cutter head. In general, these attachments have proven to be cumbersome and, in some c-ases, dangerous to handle and use because of the sharp edges on projecting metal portions that form the attaching clips or hooks.

Further, it has been shown by experience that these p prior art devi-ces are hard t-o properly attach to the cutter head which greatly hinders the efiiciency of the barber using them. Indeed, the fact is that when the metal clips or hooks are relatively new, it is extremely diiiicult to make them properly engage or snap on the cutter head due to the inherent stiffness of the metal. On the other hand, after considerable use, the clips tend to lose their resiliency with the undesirable result that the attachments can not now be properly held in position whereby they must'be discarded and replaced.

Acc-ordingly, it is one object of the present invention to provide a comb-like attachment for hair .clippers which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art mentioned above.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an attachment of the type described which is easy to attach to the cutter head and which is held securely in place.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an attachment of simple construction having improved means for holding the same on the cutter head of hair l clippers, which means are constructed to have an inattachment to properly hold said attachment in place on the cutter head of hair clippers. The preferred embodiment illustrated for the purpose of disclosing the invention contemplates the use of a multi-pole magnet for increased holding power, which is recessed in the upper surface of the body ofthe attachment for simplicity of design. As will be realized, this arrangement allows rapid placement and rem-oval to and from a secure holding position while preventing the possibility of injury from handling or use. Furthermore, the bar magnet of the preferred form illustrated is mounted in the recess of the body in a novel fashion by a shaped integral projection that cooperates With an aperture formed in the central portion of said magnet. To prevent lateral movement of the attachment of the invention with respect to the cutter head, there is suitably provided a pair of integral side guides in substantial alignment with the ends of the magnet, which extends substantially across the width of the body.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, this attachment can be advantageously used with the recently developed hair clippers having suction means adjacent the cutting blade of the clipper head to remove the loose hair. To this end, there is provided arcuate suction grooves or channels formed in the side faces of the downwardly and forwardly extending teeth of the attachment. These grooves are specially shaped to confine streams of air being pulled through the attachment by the suction means in such a manner as to assist in holding the attachment to the cutter head of the clipper. The teeth are desirably tapered from top to bottom to properly set up the h-air for the cutter head, and the grooves extend in an arcuate fashion within the tapered portion of the teeth. The grooves preferably extend from the top of the teeth curving downwardly and back to the upper surface of said body whereby the holding force created by the suction is directed upwardly and rearwardly so as to most efficiently serve in assisting the primary holding means, such as the magnet, in its holding function.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an attachment for h-air clippers utilizing'a magnet on the upper surface of the attachment for securely and safely holding the same against the cutter head of the hair clipper.

A further object of the present invention is to provide v-an attachment of the type described utilizing a magnet to perform the holding function, which attachment is therefore dictated by simplicity of `design and economy of construction.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide supplementary suction holding means for an attachment of the type described.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a comb-like attachment for hair clippers having means on the teeth for -conning the air drawn therethrough to provide an upwardly and rearwardly directed holding force for the attachment with respect to the cutter head of the clipper.

Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein I have shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by me of carrying out my invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modication in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrativein nature, and not as restrictive.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of the attachment of the invention in position for use on a hair clipper;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan View of the attachmentof FIGURE l looking in the direction of the arrows 2-2 of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a front view of the attachment looking in the direction of the arrows 4-4 of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional view of one of the end teeth of the attachment taken along line 55 of FIG- URE 2.

With specific reference now to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated a comb-like attachment which is constructed in accordance With the teachings of the present invention, and is shown in the mounted position on a hair clipper C, illustrated in dashed line outline. The clipper C is or may be of the conventional type having a body 11 with a cutter head 12 and movable cutting blade 12a. It is to be understood that the particular type of hair clipper C shown is for the purpose of disclosing the invention and the comb-like attachment 10 can be used with other types or shapes of similar clippers, if desired.

The attachment 10 comprises a body 15, as best shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, and extending downwardly and forwardly from said body 15 there are provided a plurality of integrally formed intermediate teeth 16 and end teeth 16a; it being understood that the attachment 10 is preferably moulded of a flexible plastic, such as polypropylene, although other methods and suitable materials could be used if desired. The teeth 16, 16a form a cornposite top surface 17 that extends back in an upwardly sloping fashion to the vicinity of the forward portion of the clipper head 12, then downwardly along stop shoulder 18 which is adapted to abut the tips of the stationary portion of the cutter head 12 to insure proper positioning of the attachment 10, as shown in FIGURE 1. Between the shoulder 18 and the body 15, the top surface 17 of the teeth 16, 16a forms a cutting area, generally designated by the reference numeral 19, in which the cutter blade of the head 12 projects to engage the hair as it is lifted into position by said teeth 16, 16a during the cutting operation. The attachment 10 is provided with a planar bottom surface 20, which is also formed by the composite structure of the teeth 16, 16a and, as can be seen in FIGURE 1, the bottom is substantially parallel to the cutting area 19 so as to properly gauge the length of the cut during use.

As can best be seen in FIGURES 2 and 4, the intermediate teeth 16 are tapered from the top surface 17 to the bottom surface 20 so that as the hair is lifted it is operative to press thefsame together to hold it in a substantially rigid fashion for a cleaner cut of the hair at the cutting area 19. As shown in FIGURE 4, the end teeth 16a are also tapered but only along the inner operative side face thereby rendering the sides of the attachment 10 unobstructed by proiections, as shown in FIGURE 2.

The body 15 is provided with an upper surface 25 which is contoured in a suitable manner to fit the cutter head 12 of the particular hair clipper C to which the attachment 10 is adapted to be secured. Extending upwardly and inwardly from the upper surface of the body 15 is a pair of arcuate side guides 26, 27, which are adapted to embrace the cutter head 12 along its sides (note FIG- URE 1) to prevent lateral movement during use. As shown in FIGURE 3, these side guides are provided with arcuately shaped inner guide surfaces 26a, 27a, respectively, which are, in effect, an extension of the upper surface 25 so that the attachment 10 is contoured to snugly embrace the sides as well as the bottom of the cutter head 12 in a highly desirable fashion.

In accordance with one important aspect of the present invention, there is positioned on the upper surface 25, preferably in-line between the side guides 26, 27, a magnet, generally designated by reference numeral 30, which is for the purpose of attracting the bottom surface of the cutter head 12 to solidly hold the attachment 1I) in the illustrated position of FIGURE l. The preferred embodiment of the magnet 30 takes the form of a multi-pole bar magnet 30 which has been found to give particularly good results for the indicated purpose; however, it is to be understood that other types of magnets could be used, if desired. Also, it will be realized that in this embodiment, the cutter head 12 must be fabricated of magnetic material to be attracted by the magnet 30, which material can be any metal or other substance that becomes magnetized in a magnetic field.

As best shown in FIGURE 3, the magnet 30 is positioned in a complementary recess 35 formed in the upper surface 25 of the body 15. Extending upwardly from the bottom of the recess 35, there is provided an integral projection 36 which mates with an aperture 37 formed in the central portion of the magnet 30, which aperture 37 has a `beveled face 38, as best shown in FIGURE 3. During the manufacture of the attachment 10, it is to be understood that the projection 36 originally is formed with an upper portion 39, as shown in the dotted line outline of FIGURE 3, which is then by heat and pressure caused to conform with the beveled face 38, as indicated, to securely mount the magnet 30 in the recess 35. It will be realized that this manner of mounting the magnet 30 leaves the upper surface 25 free of obstruction whereby it is adapted to readily receive the cutter head 12 during the positioning operation of the attachment 10 on the hair clipper C, now to be described.

Thus, to attach the attachment 10, it is held in the palm of one hand in the upright position illustrated in FIGURE l, and, with the clipper C being held in the other hand, the two are moved with respect to one another with a smooth motion so that the bottom of the cutter head 12 is brought into sliding engagement with the upper surface 25 of the attachment 10. As the forward portion of the cutter head 12 is moved forward with respect to the upper surface 25, it is aligned between the guide surfaces 26a, 27a, and then with a final positioning movement the same is brought into the operative position against the stop shoulder 18 of the teeth 16, 16a, as clearly shown in FIGURE l. It will be recognized that this movement can be performed rapidly, and is advantageously accomplished without having to use the fingers of the operator to engage any clips 0r hooks. Further, it is clear that it is not necessary to press or push the attachment 10 -against the palm of the hand during the attaching operation, as is required to snap prior art devices in position, and it is evident that the ease of the attaching operation will be the same and the efficiency of the holding means will not decrease over the life of the attachment 10, since the magnet 30 will retain its holding power indefinitely.

To specifically illustrate another important concept of the present invention, the preferred embodiment of the attachment 10 is shown in use with the clipper C utilizing a modern suction means 40, which extends across the forward portion of the cutting head 12 for removal of the loose hairs from the cutting area 19. As will be understood by those skilled in this art, the suction means 40 can be in the form of a flattened pipe or conduit having an ingress orifice 40a where the air (along with suspended loose hairs) is sucked through the teeth 16, 16a of the attachment 10 in response to any suitable vacuum device (not shown). In accordance with the present invention, the teeth 16, 16a are provided along their operative side faces with arcuate suction grooves or channels 41 designed to confine the air drawn through the attachment 10 to assist the primary holding means, which may be the magnet 30, in holding the attachment 10 0n the cutter head 12. To this end, the grooves 41 extend across the upper portion of said teeth 16, 16a and have an inlet opening 42 along the top 17 and an exit opening 43 in the vicinity of the cutting area 19.

During operation, it will be obvious that the air sucked in the inlet opening 42 will pass as a confined stream of air through the groove 41 (note dashed line arrow in FIGURE l), out the exit opening 43, across the cutting area 19 of the cutter head 12, and into the inlet orifice 40a of the suction pipe. This stream of air confined in the groove 41 serves as an additional attaching means because the rapidly moving, high pressure air tends to act against upper reaction surface 45 of the groove 41 (note FIGURE 5) so as to hold the entire attachment 10 in its proper, snug position against the cutter head 12.

This holding function can best be explained further by specific reference to FIGURE 5 of the drawings wherein it can be seen by way of cross section through one of the teeth 16a that each of the grooves 41 in the teeth 16, 16a is formed with a tapered profile from the top 17 to the bottom 20. The upper reaction surface 45 of the groove 41 is in the form of a reversely directed curved surface, which serves to form a confining pocket for the stream of high pressure air moving through lsaid groove 41. Thus as the pressurized stream of uid acts against this surface 45, each of the teeth 16, 16a will be supplied with an upward force, indicated by the arrow 46 in this figure, to hold the attachment snugly against the cutter head 12.

As can be noted from viewing FIGURE 1, the upper reaction surface 45 faces generally forwardly and downwardly or in the same direction as the teeth 16, 16a with respect to the body so that as a result, the total holding force of the pressurized air stream in the groove 41 is directed generally rearwardly as well as upwardly for gaining the maximum positioning action; that is, the action is rearwardly for positioning the stop shoulder 18 against the forward portion of the cutter head 12 and upwardly for positioning the upper surface 25 against the bottom of the cutter head 12, as explained in the preceding paragraph. In addition, since the profile of the groove 41 is tapered downwardly, there is a tendency for air to be sucked in along the entire length of the bottom portion of said groove 41 by the boundary layer of the -confined stream, as noted by ow arrow 50 in FIGURE 5,

which fact enhances the upward force of the confined stream against the reaction surface 45.

The groove 41 is desirably formed outside the main portion of the teeth 16, 16a or in the tapered area of the tooth, as noted by that area to the left of reference line 51 in FIGURE 5. This feature insures that the teeth are not weakened by the formation of the grooves 41. It is also noted that the tapered profile of the teeth 16, 16a and the tapered profile of the groove 41 both lend themselves to ease of withdrawal of the attachment 10 from a forming mould, as will 'be clear to those skilled in the art.

Accordingly, it will be realized that the attachment 10 of this invention is relatively simple in construction and it should now be evident that it is much easier to attach and is more securely held in the attached position than the prior art devices. Further, it will be recognized that the attachment 10 is constructed in a unitary fashion to make the same easier to handle and to have a longer serivce life. Also, as explained, the positioning of the attachment 10 is by simple sliding movement between the attachment 10 and the hair clipper C that can be accomplished in a rapid and eicient manner by the barber.

In this disclosure, there is shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention, but, as aforementioned, it is to be understood that the invention is capable of various changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed by the accompanying claims.

I claim:

1. A comb-like attachment for use with hair clippers having a cutter head of magnetic material and a movable cutting blade to perform the hair cutting operation comprising a body, an upper surface on said body adapted to cooperate with said cutter head, a plurality of teeth extending forwardly and downwardly from said body, a magnet fixed to said upper surface of said body for magnetically holding said attachment on said cutter head in spaced nonoperative relationship to said blade.

2. The attachment of claim 1 wherein said magnet is elongated and extends substantially across the width of said body, said magnet being divided into multiple poles spaced across the width of said body.

3. The attachment of Claim 2 wherein said body includes a recess formed in said upper surface, said magnet being positioned in said recess, an aperture having a beveled face formed in said magnet, said body having a protruding portion extending from the bottom of said recess and cooperating with said beveled face of said aperture in said magnet for attaching the same in said recess.

4. The attachment of claim 1 wherein is further provided a pair of arcuate guides on said body extending upwardly and inwardly with respect to said upper surface and adapted to embrace the sides of said cutter head to prevent lateral movement of said -attachment with respect to said cutter head.

5. A comb-like attachment for use with hair clippers having suction means opening above a cutter head comprising a body, an upper surface on said body adapted to cooperate with said cutter head, a plurality of teeth extending forwardly and downwardly from said body, means fixed to said upper surface of said body for holding said attachment on said cutter head, and means formed in said teeth to confine the air drawn through said attachment by said suction means to assist in holding said attachment on said cutter head.

6. The attachment of claim 5 wherein said holding means includes a magnet for magnetically holding said attachment on said cutter head, said cutter head being formed of magnetic material.

7. The attachment of claim 5 wherein said confining means includes an arcuate groove formed in at least one of the side `faces of said teeth, the mouth of said groove opening along the top of said teeth and the exit of said groove opening along the top of said teeth adjacent the upper surface of said body and adapted to be positioned adjacent to lsaid suction means of said hair clippers.

S. The attachment of claim 7 wherein said teeth are tapered from top to bottom whereby the hair is compressed between the adjacent teeth for positioning with respect to said clipper head, said groove being confined to the upper portion of said teeth.

9. The attachment of claim 7 wherein said groove has a tapered profile, the cross section of said groove being tapered from top to bottom, the top of said groove being a reversely directed reaction surface forming a pocket to aid in confining the air, said groove curving downwardly from said mouth and upwardly to the exit, Whereby an upwardly directed holding force is created by the air against said reaction surface.

10. The attachment of claim 9 wherein said reaction surface faces forwardly and downwardly whereby said holding force is directed rearwardly and upwardly with respect to said cutter head.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,370,815 3/1945 Ross 30-74 2,696,666 12/1954 Snead 30--133 2,747,277 5/ 1956 Esposito 30-200 WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner. I. C. PETERS, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A COMB-LIKE ATTACHMENT FOR USE WITH HAIR CLIPPERS HAVING A CUTTER HEAD OF MAGNETIC MATERIAL AND A MOVABLE CUTTING BLADE TO PERFORM THE HAIR CUTTING OPERATION COMPRISING A BODY, AN UPPER SURFACE ON SAID BODY ADAPTED TO COOPERATE WITH SAID CUTTER HEAD, A PLURALITY OF TEETH EXTENDING FORWARDLY AND DOWNWARDLY FROM SAID BODY, A MAGNET FIXED TO SAID UPPER SURFACE OF SAID BODY FOR MAGNETICALLY HOLDING SAID ATTACHMENT ON SAID CUTTER HEAD IN SPACED NONOPERATIVE RELATIONSHIP TO SAID BLADE. 